‘Terminator Salvation Director’s Cut’ just adds brief nudity

If you look at the MPAA rating blocks on the back cover of the BD of “Terminator Salvation,” you’ll see that the Director’s Cut is rated R for “some violence and brief nudity.” When I saw that, I thought perhaps they lightened up on the sequence where the T-800 makes his appearance. After all, you can see Arnold swinging in the breeze in the opening moments of the first “Terminator” film.

Nope. The increase in rating is due to a brief, heavily shadowed sequence of Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) taking off her top for no real apparent reason other than titillation, while Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) keeps his head turned in respectful indifference. If that’s what you were looking for, you’ll get it. But it doesn’t add anything to the film.

Of course, you could have learned that by going to the article on Wikipedia. You’ll also learn there that the “violence” cut out was Marcus’ stabbing a bad guy with a screwdriver. All of the other gratuitous violence seems to be intact, so it’s still curious to me that the film received a PG-13 rating for theatrical release. But “Live Free, Die Hard“ was able to, so I suppose the same logic used there applies here.

As the film opens, Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) visits Marcus in his prison cell in 2003. He is about to be executed for murder. She is dying of cancer. She is there to try to convince him to donate his body to science. For the price of a kiss, he agrees. One year later, Skynet goes on-line, and the world ends in Judgment Day.

Cut to 2018. John Connor (Christian Bale) is part of an assault against a Very Large Array base run by Skynet. (Why Skynet needs a VLA is not answered.) In an underground bunker, he discovers human prisoners and evidence that Skynet is working on new Terminators that will be covered in real human flesh, making them more efficient as infiltrators. He goes to the surface to report this new information to the Resistance headquarters only to be attacked by a T-700 Terminator. He manages to defeat the Terminator, but the base goes up in a nuclear explosion. (How Connor escapes the radiation is also not explained.)

Connor reports to the Resistance headquarters, located on an old nuclear submarine. The general in charge (Michael Ironside) isn’t impressed by Connor’s revered status among the resistance, but gives him the mission of testing out a new radio frequency that shuts down Skynet’s machines. Connor is also told that he’s number two on the Skynet kill list; the first is Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin).

Back at the VLA, a mud-spattered figure emerges from the nuclear hole; Marcus has returned from the dead. He takes a coat from a dead Resistance member and walking to L.A., where he’s dumbfounded by the destruction that he sees. Walking down a debris-strewn street, he calls to a humanoid figure walking down the road. However, it turns out to be a T-600 Terminator, who immediately opens up with a mini-gun. A teenager knocks Marcus out of the line of fire and tells him tersely, “Come with me if you want to live.” It’s Reese.

After ingeniously trapping and destroying the Terminator, Reese and his mute child companion Star (Jadagrace Berry) accuse Marcus of not being a member of the Resistance, despite the blood stripe on his arm. Marcus easily disarms Reese, then has Reese fill him in on the events of Judgment Day. The three of them catch a broadcast by Connor on shortwave radio, and decide to leave L.A. to search for Connor.

They stop at an abandoned gas station for fuel and food, but are attacked by a giant harvesting Terminator machine, which takes Reese and Star prisoner. Marcus attempts to free them, but is tossed away. A pair of A-10 fighter-bombers show up, but are unable to shoot down the harvester and are downed instead. Marcus rescues Blair, one of the A-10 pilots and she agrees to take him to her base.

When they approach the base, they have to cross a magnetic minefield. Inexplicably, a mine attaches itself to Marcus’ leg and blows. He is carried to the infirmary, where it is discovered that he is a cyborg with human organs and flesh, but a metal endoskeleton. He says that he does not know how this happened to him, which Connor does not believe and orders his destruction. Blair believes in Marcus because he saved her life, so she sets him free.

Connor goes after Marcus, but his helicopter is attacked by Skynet hydrobots. Marcus saves him from the machines and they strike a deal; Marcus will go to San Francisco to find Reese, then contact Connor when he has done so. (How he got there so quickly on foot is also not explained.)

The first disc on the BD is the Director’s Cut, with the above-mentioned scenes restored. It’s only three minutes more, so one wonders why the scenes weren’t just added separately as deleted scenes, or just branched into a hybrid disc.

The second disc contains the theatrical version, and it’s here where all of the extras are. At this point, I’m wondering why Warner Bros. spent the money for a three-disc BD set, one being a CD-R with the digital copy, when a two-disc set would have sufficed and lowered the production expenses in addition to the price point.

The theatrical version is also the one that contains the “Maximum Movie Mode” viewing option, which is the second time this feature has been offered (the first was the BD of “Watchmen”). Director McG stands in front of two screens, introducing about 10 different “probe” segments that play like featurettes. The viewer has the option of watching the film and breaking off to the probe segments, or watching them separately. I’d recommend separately.

The probe segments are primarily concerned with the “in-camera” pains that McG took; real explosions in favor of digital ones; the use of stuntmen in suits to play Terminators, who would later be replaced by CGI; a visit to the Stan Winston studios, where the Terminator models were built. Especially interesting is a segment on how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body cast from the 1984 film was resurrected to create the CGI facial likeness shown in the film.

There are two featurettes: “The Moto-Terminator” talks about taking Ducati motorcycles and turning them into Terminator-motorcycles (which I thought was a pretty cool idea); “Re-forging the Future” talks about the re-invention of the Terminator and the effort to make it familiar but different. The idea was to revisit the world, but this time actually be in the post-apocalyptic future.

Watching that last featurette, I was struck by the similarities between this film and the recent re-boot of “Star Trek” (and not just because Anton Yelchin starred in each film). Each was taking an established franchise, hitting specific cue points (Connor’s character gets the “I’ll be back” line this time), yet going off in a novel direction to try and establish it’s own identity. In effect, they were trying to create what they referred to as a “retro-future.”

When I saw the film in the theater this past summer, I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. I didn’t hate it, but I felt it was a weak entry in the series. (Sort of like an odd-numbered “Star Trek” film.) Watching the extras made me appreciate what they were trying to do. I’m still not terribly impressed, but I think the intentions were there.

The BD is acceptable, with the extras and the two versions, for those who are willing to invest in the format. But it does indicate what might become a disturbing trend in the industry; there are NO extras on the DVD versions, as far as I can tell. The extras are all exclusively on BD. The studios might see this as a way to encourage people to invest in the format. I think it’s a big mistake and will only serve to alienate the customer base.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, no mention is made of the famous row between Bale and director of photography Shane Hurlbut. I didn’t get all the way through McG’s commentary, so it might be there, but I rather doubt it. That’s the kind of thing everybody involved would rather be forgotten.

There are some big turf wars going on over the next film in the series, all surrounding money and credit. I’m not interested in that. If they manage to work it out and make another film, I’ll go see it.

If you want the Director’s Cut on conventional DVD, you’ll have to go to Target, as they are the only ones selling it. According to the Wikipedia article, McG intended the nude scene to be homage to the similar scene between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis in “Witness.” It came across as just another woman taking her top off in an action picture, and he chose to cut it. Quite frankly, it’s not enough to justify the price of admission, in my opinion.

I do believe that Warner Bros. could have done better for it’s own profits by releasing this as a single BD disc instead of a two BD-disc set. The expense of a keep case that holds 3 discs, plus the production costs involved by producing two BD discs; it just doesn’t make sense to me. Especially with only a three-minute difference between the two films, and with all of the included extras on the Theatrical Version. The only reason I can think of for the two-disc release is the BD-Live capacities, which appear only to be on the Director’s Cut.

Bottom line: Even fans of the series were ambivalent about this one. It’s got plenty of explosions and hulking Terminators, but it just didn’t sit well. Collectors of the BD format or those wanting extras will do well with the BD version. For most folks, you’re probably better off with a rental, as this isn’t a film you’re going to be watching over and over again, like you did with the first two “Terminator” films.

Now that James Cameron (the series’ creator) is done with “Avatar,” can someone draft him to have a role in the next film? Writer, producer, director – anything that will give him some creative input. It will only help.